Free at Last – Free at Last – Thank God We’re Free at Last

“The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like.”

Thus spoke the leaders of the Senate in the United States Congress Mitch McConnell on yythe last full day of Trump’s term in office.

“Today, the last full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, the official death count reached 400,000 — a once-unthinkable number. More than 100,000 Americans have perished in the pandemic in just the past five weeks.”

A statement that resulted from Trump’s total neglect of an invasion of America by Covid 19 as if he intended it to kill as many Americans as possible.

“As the Supreme Court recognized nearly fourteen years ago, climate change has been called “the most pressing environmental challenge of our time. And both Republican and Democratic administrations have agreed: . . . The question in this case is whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted lawfully . . . It did not.  . . .  the repeal of its predecessor rule,  . . .  hinged on a fundamental misconstruction of Section 7411(d) of the Clean Air Act. In
addition, the ACE Rule’s amendment of the regulatory framework to slow the process for reduction of emissions is arbitrary and capricious.”

“The EPA . . . may not shirk its responsibility by imagining new limitations that the plain language of the statute does not clearly require.”

The foregoing are quotes from a decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia in the case of The American Lung Association v. The Environmental Protection Agency handed down on the last full day of Trump’s time in office preventing the EPA from watering down America’s clean air standards.

The last day in part summed up the the America that Trump wanted and almost gained through fraud, lies and obsequious followers: one where rioters would decide who would be in charge of the country; one where people would die during a pandemic and he would wash his hands of their deaths; and one where the air the people breathed and the water they drank was made less safe.

It was obvious to me from the git-go that is what Trump would foster upon our country. For four years I warned that he was not in this to better the way of life for Americans but to divide the country by opening the Trump Box and letting hate roam unfettered and unchallenged throughout the land. His cult of followers listened but did not hear.

Those who supported Trump defended him each step of the way no matter what he did. They  feared to object to even the most ignoble of his actions. His obvious fear of protecting America from Russia passed as if that were normal. He multitude of lies were justified. His self-absorption, dyed hair, made-up face, and vulgarity they turned their eyes from. His boorishness in refusing to stay for the inauguration; his chants against clear proof to the contrary that he won the election; and his willingness to stir up American against American for his own benefit and profit were accepted as the right thing to do.

I asked over and over again “is this the America you want?”  I wondered why people sought to be ruled by a mob of ignoramuses who have now been identified as the perpetrators of the insurrection. The Trump Box in letting them out showed us how hard we must work to preserve our democracy from those who would take it from us.

Some, mostly in the Christian Evangelical community, believe God had a hand in making Trump president. Perhaps that is so. But it was not for the reason they suggest. It was to point out how fragile, effete, and tenuous our democracy can be. It was to point our how quickly the accepted norms can be undermined by putting the wrong person in a position of power. He wanted to show us the danger of the mob when fed lies and encouragement.

He gave us a last chance. He freed us from the demon for now. We must now embrace our fellow humans treating all as equal. We must move forward making life better for all our citizen of every race, belief, sexual-preference, country of origin, or economic condition. We must never again go backwards for we’ve seen what happens when one yearns for a time that never existed.

We must thank God for the lesson that our freedom depends upon each of us acting in an unselfish way to make our home a better place and for allowing us to keep our freedom.